Bastion doesn't need gameplay gimmicks to feel innovative - instead, it plays with presentation in clever ways, and ends up feeling incredibly fresh, despite essentially being action RPG lite.

A pretty good – if not unexceptional – action-RPG where an arcade-oriented simplicity and an experiment with pricing structures are the orders of the day.

It's difficult to criticise EDGE for being a bad game when it's simply a well-executed product of frustrating concept. Until the latter stages, it's a simple albeit handicapped walk through a series of refreshing virtual environments.

If you love, or are curious about, Ugly Americans just watch the show. If you need a good sidescrolling shooter fix, an 8-bit snack should suffice to satisfy your palette.

Despite the incongruous nature of Human Revolution's bosses, they remain a minor – but noticeable – blemish on an otherwise fantastic experience.

The Baconing's witty, daft and fun, but also doesn't do enough to improve on the faults of the previous entries in the series, and in some cases pushes those issues to the forefront. The bacon is now well cooked and about to burn.

Hector isn't innovative. It doesn't raise the bar for gameplay in adventure games, nor does it really bring anything new to the table. It does, however, offer simple gameplay - offering an experience that's easy to get into, along with a downright funny adventure to boot.

Any way you peel it, Fruit Ninja Kinect is a bare bones game about swinging your arms at flying produce. If you're too proud to see the stupid amusement in doing as much, you will hate it. For those of us wanting a bit of silly, mostly mindless fun, it's a refreshing new way to work up a sweat and look like an idiot.

With its inadequate online play, starved features, and questionable arcade perfection, Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection is, at best, a nostalgic purchase.

It strives to be a big, all-encompassing cyberpunk adventure, and it wholly succeeds.

Beyond some sharp points in the visual style, The Asskickers is a prime example of why beat 'em ups have all but been abandoned. Go play Streets of Rage if you need a reminder of how relevant that still feels – this game won't satiate anyone's thirst for 16-bit nostalgia.

It's a fun experience while it lasts, even if that might not be as long as you'd like. Still, this is a marked improvement, and even as a kind of iteration, is a reminder of Signal Studios' potential.

Its nowhere near perfect online play continues the classic case of being bummed from losses or wins thanks to lag and being S.O.L. if players have no fellow Street Fighters to game with locally.

A poor game shrouded in an illusion of mediocrity.

For a title that offers equal billing to both pirates and zombies, the latter get left backstage for a large portion of the game.

For fans of the sport, RWC 2011 is worth the price of admission, if not the wait. It's a game full of promise, but lacks the polish to appeal to a wider audience.

At best Sonic Adventure is an amusing history lesson for the tolerant, at worst it just serves as a reminder of how long Sonic has been floundering.

Trenched follows a well-worn formula with dustings of humor and a self-aware annoyance at its own conformity. That gives it an edge. What it loses out on is the creative soul of past projects, the manic energy of something like Psychonauts.

Arcana Heart 3 is fun for what it offers, but it falls short of its real potential. These girls need to train more.

From Dust has a simple concept, executed exceptionally well. It's almost worth the price of entry to see the physics alone, but there's plenty more beyond that to make a purchase worthwhile.

Without equal in how effectively it exploits the senses.

Catherine justifies its unique premise with unique gameplay, and works wonderfully.

A fun Shmup that remembers to keep things simple. The appeal here is in the core action – never becoming confused with any half-baked mechanics or over-used ideas.

The pairing of Suda 51's unhinged creativity with Shinji Mikami's sense for distinguished mechanics is enough to make Shadows of the Damned a compelling release in its own right.

Taking a rather large portion of influence from PopCap's games, Kickin' Momma is a great title; one that could of easily have been a low-priced XBLA release. It's also secured my interest in all future Hothead Games releases.

This is a game that was crafted for the fans, tweaking the things that they already liked without necessarily improving on the overall experience.

There's enough content and variety here that it serves the purpose of party-oriented multiplayer well. The truth is – in the right setting – YDKJ can be light fun, but it never goes any further than that.

Certainly a huge step up from Honest Hearts.

It's difficult to draw a distinction between the qualities of Hot Springs Story and Game Dev Story. The latter will be inherently more interesting for gamers and as such, probably fares worse on the iPhone, while Hot Springs Story is more casually slanted but skews for a unique cultural niche.

Regardless if you choose to make the jump to the Arcade Edition or not, Street Fighter IV is always worth playing.

As with any episodic content, We Negotiate with Terrorists ends on a cliffhanger, a most amusing one at that.

Essential, easily worth both the time and monetary investment not only to your own gameplay experience but also to that of your character. Besides the raised level cap, new traits, arsenal and items, once completed, the Big MT can be revisited at will. And unlike other DLC, this is one you'll actually want to revisit again and again.

It's the experience of playing the game that demands attention, because there is very little quite like it. It's a strange and unusual game that plays in a familiar manner to explore an unfamiliar world, and it's worth exploring. As long as you don't mind dying a few times to get there.

Caelondia is a beautiful, vibrant locale to behold, punctuated by a fitting soundtrack that will surprise as often as it delights. But, it's the characters and creatures of this world that make the experience so special and memorable.

Warpspeed is more of a technical demo than a final product, further proven by the repeated soundtrack that is akin to an old game engine trailer. The design is there, but now it needs to become something more to develop itself as a video game, and not just an idea.

With no atmosphere or end goal this suffers from a lack of depth or progress. Add the inability to save your current game, and it becomes a whirl through the same scenario.

Taking the series out of the Wild West has stripped The Cartel of character. While I understand Techland's desire to move forward, its lost its edge. In a crowded genre, The Cartel is solid, at times fun, but ultimately uninspiring.

It's a simple game, reminiscent of a simpler time. Minus the quarters.

Due to its comical demeanor, childish puzzles, brief length, and its absence of violence and crude language, Puzzle Agent 2 would be best enjoyed by the adolescent demographic, or by those looking for pure casual fun. For the more seasoned puzzle fanatic, or those who would expect more from a name like 'Puzzle Agent', may do well to spend their ten bucks elsewhere.

While the effects are stolen, the main theme is painfully catchy. A mix of electronic grime and beats, the looped theme will soon drill a cavity into your cranium, filling it in with the resonance of Jersey GTL.

The idea of barricading yourself from zombie hordes and working cooperatively to survive is a solid scenario. However, the controls and constant QTE's hinder interaction and the game hastily leaps into repetition.

A great little downloadable that's completely worth the price of admission.

A truly unique, absurd action game that no one should miss. With the help of Shinji Mikami, Suda 51 has delivered his most palatable experience to date.

Dream Trigger 3D has a lot of interesting ideas, but rarely implements them well. The gameplay mechanics are needlessly contrived; by the time you've gotten over the learning curve, you'll probably want to stop playing.

It has a learning curve, it rewards those that think a round ahead and has piped my interest in the physical product. Bravo.

There could have been so much more to Samurai Warriors Chronicles…but there isn't. Unlike its source material, this game will never make history.

Dead or Alive: Dimensions has some great things going for it, but neglects everything else.

An enjoyable, lengthy twin-stick shooting affair. Restricting the player to platforms creates a unique dynamic in the genre and adds a fresh element of bullet hell.

For straight up action, this is definitely one of the better iOS titles available.

Wolfenstein RPG suffers severely from repetition. Fortunately, the light-hearted humour and weapon variation helps to keep this feeling fresh during shorter sessions. If you're looking for an RPG with a twist to play during your travels you'd do well to download this title.

Destructopus's bright, 16-bit vibe works well and is fun. But like Rampage before it, there's little variation or much reason to go back once you've played through.

To only play the game on your own would be dull, and at best somewhat tiresome. Playing with another person comes recommended; it's much more fun.

Thanks to the handiwork of Ubisoft Shanghai, the small but passionate cult following and the burning sting of its original commercial failure, we all have a second chance to reconcile our differences with this flawed masterpiece – I'm glad I did.

A quick – if not awkward – adventure through the sea.

These faults aside, Armageddon takes the core elements that attracted all of us to the series in the first place and combines them to create a solid game that series fans can't afford to miss.

This is one of the best games of 2011. Never thought I'd be saying that about an iPhone title.

A lack of polish in levels, badly acted plotlines and unnecessary adventure fields between core levels.

The sheer variety of playing styles and technical options at your disposal is staggering; this is easily the deepest and most demanding title currently on the 3DS.

During a time when Japan's hit a creative drought with RPGs, it's great to see a game that's adopting this traditional style, and using it in a more imaginative way.

This comes back to my initial concern about the 'Buy' feature. It's not an issue if it doesn't affect game balance but when it does then there is cause for concern. Other than this gripe, it's a great game.

For FPS fans that want a break from modern warfare settings, F.E.A.R. 3 is this year's alternative - caked in blood, guts, mind blowing audio design and high-octane co-op action.

Nothing is broken, and The Adventures of Shuggy is a solid, functional title. But it wasn't until the later levels that the toe-curling, tense moments came in and I felt any exhilaration or reward.

A far from essential purchase and is only recommended for Fallout completists.

It's a smart, refreshingly dark take on RPGs, complemented by action-oriented and tactical combat with a surprising amount of depth.

It's an example of how and why Lara fell behind the likes of today's occult warriors, anti-hero gangsters, and the God of War himself.

Add in an epic, bombastic orchestral score by Kevin Riepl (he also worked on Gears of War) and a surprisingly robust and easy-to-use level creation tool and you have one of the better games to be released so far in 2011. Highly Recommended.

The imprecision of The Fancy Pants Adventure's platforming segments leave a lingering feeling that it's still trying to appeal to an audience that's OK with a quirky-yet-limited platforming game.

As long as Lexis Numerique continues down its exemplary path, the trouble with point-and-clicks might as well be considered an open and shut case.

One of the more challenging and satisfying titles I've played all year. It cleverly side-steps the tower-defense bottle neck by throwing things into reverse, creating a wholly unique tactical-strategy experience.

The jokes are pulled from all over the place and most of them fall flat, and no one gameplay mechanic is particularly impressive. It feels like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be, whether it's an old school throwback or a more modern shooter, and in the end it succeeds at being neither.

Honest Hearts was promised as a long awaited harvest, but is rather, a shrub grown from the soils of poor choices.

DNF was damned if it did, damned if it didn't. I'm just glad to have finally played it. And upon completing the campaign, and laughing at the ending, I loaded it back up and started again; on Easy this time to avoid the long reloading. That alone speaks volumes. It feels like a long time ago since I enjoyed a FPS campaign like this.

It was never going to be perfect but it hits a spot that's been left unappreciated for an awfully long time. While the likes of Call of Duty and Crysis continue down the road to absolute realism, Duke Nukem Forever takes gamers back to remind about how to have fun; surely that's why people play games?

It's easy to recommend. But it's not without flaws. This isn't the L.A. Noire equivalent to an expansive, full length downloadable entry. Instead, it's a solid showcase for the things L.A. Noire does right, oddly plotted in the center of the game, adding on some moderate replay value.

What Gatling Gears loses out on in originality it nearly makes up for in polish.

While not containing an extensive range of content, Mighty Fin does provide a consistently enjoyable experience on the move, one devoid of frustration or a 'buy in-game credits' system.

In many ways it feels ahead of its time and once this technology becomes accepted as an industry standard, L.A. Noire will no longer feel as significant. Until then, it's a testament to Rockstar's ability to create characteristically rich worlds with top-notch production values and is also a pretty good homage to film-noir.

Mortal Kombat definitely provides a fighting experience like no other. With a return to the original all-star cast, the involving Challenge Tower, the best Story Mode in fighter history, approachable gameplay, and mindblowing graphics, this is an affair that definitely requires your attention.

The game is accessible while still retaining great depth and with dozens of excellent tracks and a huge fleet of cars spanning five decades of racing, there's a ton of content to keep players interested.

L.A. Noire is a fairly dull detective game unnecessarily superimposed on an open-world. Most of the time players spend while playing L.A. Noire is doing things that are boring, mindless, rote.

Indeed, this is both mathematical and storytelling art-work; it teams a gripping narrative with an inventive gameplay mechanic that makes for an excellent and unforgettable ride.

Though not flawless, Capsized combines a unique style with classic gameplay to produce a unique and memorable experience.

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is a superb title that offers players a deep campaign, addictive turn-based gameplay and a multiplayer suite that only makes one misstep.

If you've ever gotten caught up in a multiplayer game of Jam at the arcade or experienced the console conversions during the mid-'90s, this NBA Jam reboot is likely the closest anyone's come to getting it right since Midway's Hangtime series.

Considering the level of flexibility, it's still likely you won't be totally happy with Conduit 2; the campaign is lazy, marred with bad AI, lots of balance issues, poor writing and impotent weaponry. The multiplayer is the sole reprieve, but even then, it's still only a relative high point.

The swarmites are your people and you want to protect them. Maybe they're dumb, but spend some quality time with them though, and you'll find a lot to love, once you've come to cherish their eccentricities and predicament. Like any family they're a chore, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

It's important, however, that one doesn't expect Parasite Eve III when popping this into their PSP, as that would surely result in acute disappointment.

For those still unsure about the iPhone's gaming credentials, this accomplished racer is more than adequate evidence for the contrary.

The most fun I've had with a fighting game in many, many years. There is an unrivalled amount of single player content and a busy online system, all of which is a joy to play.

The short, breakneck campaigns create a compelling game you'll likely revisit time and time again. It's the perfect blend of planning and reflexes, requiring you to thoroughly plan every move but remain highly reactive and adaptable.

Aside from the stunning 3D graphics, there's little else to justify the game's hefty price tag. Pilotwings Resort doesn't quite crash and burn, but it can't quite fly on its own.

It's only too bad this series can't get out of its own way at times, because there are moments when it's pure fun and others that feel at odds with the rest of the package.

Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder is hardly the worst game ever, but it isn't likely to keep your attention for very long.

Swarm can be summed up in one sentence: There's a big red button with a giant sign stating 'DO NOT TOUCH'. Regardless of the mission at hand you can't help but interact with everything along the way and Hothead have embraced this by making death as much fun as success. It's silly, immature, creative and ultimately lots of fun from beginning to end.

The combat and level design can become repetitive during long sessions and its difficulty may put some people off. But when it plays so well, looks unique, is filled with zest and the fun doubles in co-op, it's ultimately a rewarding and enjoyable experience.

A triumphant game. It's wonderfully complex and detailed, and vibrantly decorated with historical trappings that will satisfy anyone with a passing interest in military strategy. While the presentation and multiplayer are a little rough around the edges, there's more than enough content to make the game a more than worthwhile experience.

Looks and sounds better than it plays.

Its brevity is the main cause for concern with a limited number of modes and a faltering online community, but it's not quite enough to detract from the amount of fun garnered from its brand of outlandish wrestling action.